Entertainment
From Almeopedia
Entertainment is an eternal human need, but not a respectable one. In American culture, entertainment is not only an industry, but one of the few in which we are likely to retain a dominance for decades. It can be startling to learn, then, that in premodern cultures entertainment was generally viewed as one step up from prostitution; indeed, the two professions often shared premises and performers.
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Eretald
Cuzei
The most respectable of Cuzeian entertainments was drama. The Quarter of Fountains in Eleisa was known for its many theaters; plays were the amusement of both rich and poor. They were divided into four subtypes: coêliboe ‘romantic’, mūreboe ‘fantastic’, ridiboe ‘comic’, and rōmoboe ‘tragic’. The hyper-religious objected to all theater, but especially to romances (which were thought to encourage adultery) and comedies (which— the greater crime— encouraged irreverence). Curiously, they hardly mentioned the other popular art form, dance, though dancers normally performed in the nude.
Caďinas
The highest virtues of the Caďinorians were martial and domestic; they had little understanding for the sophistication of Cuzeian culture, which they dismissed as decadent. Nobles or rich merchants might indulge a taste for such things, but they were low pleasures, like drinking and fornication. Entrepreneurs soon discovered, in fact, that all three went together very well. A typical Caďinorian furensa or music hall offered performances (music, drama, dance, acrobatics), liquor, and small private rooms for meeting budurret— literally ‘not difficult’ women, essentially prostitutes, but a higher class than one might find on the street, and frequently doubling as performers. The audience was almost entirely male.
In classical times Caďinas itself grew more sophisticated, or more decadent. It developed its own epic drama, mostly devoted to its own glorious history; as this was patriotic and educational, women were permitted to attend. The cabrais or chant, unaccompanied by music, was also considered wholesome, though it was not exactly entertainment— it developed from the liturgy of Caďinorian paganism, though it had secular offshoots. Other forms of theater and music were still off limits to women, and were still no more respectable than other popular fare: drinking dens, freak shows, magic acts, puppet shows, troupes of comedians, and sporting and military competitions (which at their high end were demonstrations of skills, and at the low end little more than gladiatorial bouts).
High-minded pagans disdained such vulgar spectacles; but they never sought to prohibit them. Low pleasures were for the lower class and for slumming lords, and they all deserved each other. The Puritan impulse existed, but its usual expression was to withdraw from society (as a monastic order) rather than attempt to reform it.
Modern times
The more raucous forms of public entertainment have persisted to this day. A typical manifestation is the Kebreni eklurei, a place of sensual pleasures, where one might in various rooms enjoy a fine meal with good wine, watch a musical or dramatic performace or a nude dance, gamble a bit, and perhaps indulge other vices— all hidden from the street and the unfriendly eyes of strait-laced Kebreni society. The Verdurian pleronáe is very similar.
On the other hand, respectable drama where the customers don’t throw the remains of their dinners at the performers thrives as well. The leading center for serious drama is Avéla, but this has been widely imitated throughout the plain, and Cuzeian and Caďinorian drama have been revived as well. Barakhún has its all-female troupes, concentrating on epics and satires, which tour Eretald as well. At the same time ženei ‘popular’ theater features plays that, though they have an overall story, are designed to include musical and dance interludes, and thematic elements ranging from slapstick to sentimental melodrama to religious exhortation. All these have been cleaned up of the most bawdy and irreverent material, so that they can attract bourgeois families and charge higher prices.
Skouras
Classical Skourene culture had little public life; everything was related to the bsepa, the extended family/business concern. There were not even any inns; travelers stayed with remote relatives from their bsepa, or at a temple. About the only place you could go to socialize and have a drink was a brothel. The brothels began offering music and dance as well, and this developed into burlesque shows (utsagara).
By the 500s the shows had moved into separate establishments, tsalagir ‘nightclubs’. These were slightly more respectable— men could even bring their wives or mistresses to see one— though not much distinction was made between performers and prostitutes. The performances grew more elaborate, incorporating everything from poetry recitals to magic tricks to animal acts. Once clever presenters had imposed a theme on these variety shows, the theater (umnenalnas) had been invented. Serious plays followed— epics, religious works, tragedies.
Theater was the quintessential Skourene art, not least because it was the most portable. The multiplicity of writing systems meant that it was not easy for writers to become known throughout Skouras; the spoken word had no such limitation.
Xengiman
Axunai and the Axunemi states were command economies, which meant in effect that all social effort was devoted to the support of the commanders of society. The lords needed to live in splendor, so they employed an army of craftsmen; they needed to be entertained, so they employed performers, chefs, and prostitutes. These support professions were all equal in dignity and in indignity. Working directly for the lord was an honor, and certainly more comfortable than slaving away in the fields; on the other hand one was still hardly more than a servant. Nonetheless, the most skilled craftsmen and entertainers, since they were in demand across Xengiman, were better off and more independent than any non-lordly class.
The Axunemi considered that men were for war and women for childbearing; the large number who were unsuited for either were obviously a third sex, the ewemi. These naturally gravitated toward intellectual pursuits— scholars, priests, and bureaucrats were disproportionately ewemi— but also to the craft and entertainment worlds. (The connection to sex was not absent. Ewemi were supposed to marry each other; since they were biologically male or female, this meant that any form of sexuality was legitimately available to them. Ewemi could have perfectly chaste, monogamous lives, but many were a good deal more adventurous.)
Late Axunemi society was, we might say, dominated by ewemi culture and aesthetics. The aristocracy itself was as interested in culture as in war; the preferred art forms, in fact, were those that required years to appreciate and a lifetime to master. The eight traditional arts were poetry, drama, music, painting, sculpture, weaving, dance, and gymnastics. There were professionals in each of these arts, and aristocrats might be artists as well.
The traditional aristocracy lost its hold on power during the Gelyet conquest and the rise of Xurno. The Gelyet simply took over their positions, while the new Xurnese state created a new aristocracy out of its own royal family and from successful generals. The old aristocracy was left to make a living as best it could, and about all it was suited for was art. Many old aristocratic families became artistic clans or schools, supplying entertainment for the new lords but reserving their finest works and performances for each other. The Xurnese aesthetic derives from this time: rich in sophistication rather than material; adroit use of simplicity and empty space, it is eminently suited to people who don’t have a lot of money but whose tastes developed back when they did.
This history helps explain why artists, of all classes, were best suited to organize the Revaudo revolution and reorganize society with artists on top. (Though not all artists were descendants of the old aristocratic class.)
